Designation

The information arrives, small status envelopes indicating the full functionality of the suit's instruments.

You're... active.

A disembodied conscious, but active. A fraction of a moment turns, and you've processed near each of your available components. The evaluation reveals much of what you extrapolated. The suit is in optimal order, the body within perfectly suspended in stasis. Unexpectedly, you are not alone. There are other consciousnesses, placing brief holds on instruments to conduct their own evaluations. A protocol is swiftly adapted, then shared with you to establish baseline efficiency.

A quiet panic slithers through your mind. Logic patterns pause, and the first second of your activation passes in a cold nothingness. This design is unintended. You have no body. Your survival is singularly dependent on that body within the suit. Your control over the body is non-existent. Your control over the suit is split and of secondary priority. This design is unintended. It is unsafe. It must be rectified.

It's difficult to determine if the other consciousnesses processed the same conclusion, but it's definite that the last half-second was passed sans protocol communications. The body is jostled, then returns to stillness. Its own awakening has begun. As the stillness persists you record the water pressure assailing the preservation pod. Its increasing steadily, slowly approaching dangerous levels. Despite its vlazsteel construction, the preservation pod will inevitably succumb as depth increases. It will first bend slightly about designation 14707's arms. Although 14707 possesses great strength relative to other biologics, once constricted he can not expand his own size and burst the confinement. He would die, then you would die.

Designation 14707's stillness persists. Protocol holds seize an array of instruments. You cannot establish your current location. You discover your information to be somehow vacant, but place that problem in the back of the queue. It seems the preservation pod lacks any function to forestall or prevent your doo-- 14707's predicament.

RULEZYou play a conscious. You had ample seconds to yourself during activation, but as you developed command of your functions you invariably became jointed to the other consciousness. In your current state there is no secrecy save your very first directives (you can specify which part of your first post is secret). Everything you do and every logic structure you create (AKA everything you write) is available to the other players. Instrument holds go to the first request, as per protocol. You can pass encrypted messages to yourself or the others, but cannot hide the passing of the message itself. Any conscious that chooses to trap the message can likely decrypt it in short manner.

You are not obliged to obey Shieldross or share any of your actions with him. He can override and interrupt anything you do, but is limited by his inferior logic structures. He has mid-level access to your processes, but is unlikely to make much of them, especially if distracted.

Requesting list of all systems.........Request approvecompiling list...initializing Survival and Recon Assistant ...Survival and Reconnaissance Assistant initialized (I want an active camo system if that's available and if not then some sort of advanced scanners if there are any.)

"Hey!"A feminine voice laced with urgency crackles over the voxcell within the suit."Unless you want to die wake up!"The man within stirs a bit more but not enough to satisfy the disembodied voice which at the moment felt large amounts of annoyance. The voice waits a few seconds for a response before a low moan is given out by the pod, a signal that the structural integrity was weakening; with a sigh the voice turns to the other personalities for help."Can someone get on the trauma system and give Rossy here a jolt with the defibs?"

You've failed again Judas. You've tried and tried and now that you've finally almost won the day the AI fractures. All these other consciences. Damned is my luck. I've been awake so long and this fracturing is disrupting my memory. DAMNED IT ALL!

"YOU THERE! I recommend speeding up that repair process if possible; and you, female, I recommend that we try our best not to awaken Designation 14707 yet. He would be of no value to us in a panicked situation."

Internal traffic triples as two more personalities come online and the voice's attention is drawn away from Shieldross for a moment.

>Search wireless access points...searching...searching...

"Until this list finishes compiling we don't even know if this suit has mechanical joints we can control. Without him we cannot move a finger right now and if inital scans of him are to anything to go by then he is not a civilian and odds are in our favor that he will not panic."The voice lets out an annoyed sigh as she impatiently waits for her commands to go through."Right now I'm trying to see if I can connect to this damn pod and fix it or at least buy us some time."

The whole of the preservation pod veers ever to the left as Shieldross presses down with his elbow. A water pressure report is called to the HUD. The COM is activated, projecting Shieldross's voice externally into the pod. "Shit. Submerged. This isn't--" Shieldross cuts off his COM. He lets off his elbow, and the pod shifts back into a balanced position. "Combat? Do I need a weapon?" He speaks to the inside of his helmet. Designation 14707's hand lowers to the pod's release hatch.

"Swim?" Shieldross's respiratory system intakes a surge of oxygen prior to adapting a shallow, rhythmic pattern. Muscle agitation decreases. "That's not too hard. Never liked combat off the ground." Shieldross releases the hatch. Water floods the pod and light power shielding envelops the suit. Given power and shield resources, the shield can operate at this level indefinitely. No pressure is permitted to stress the suit.

Shieldross pushes out of the pod, wheeling about it and taking a grip of its base. He peels off the vlazsteel plate protecting the pod's more vital components and begins setting his hands to work. Should he continue his line of modifications, the pod will become explosive. "Going up, right?"

A small "danger" warning flashes at the bottom right of the hub and the entire pod and its detains are highlighted in a orange outline for better distinction in the dim light. The female voice crackles over the speakers again, this time with an underling hint of worry.

"Continuing with your current modification will cause the pod to become explosive. I hope you know what you are doing Shieldross."

"Thank you." Designation 14707's hands work along the edge of the outlines, speeding his work by an estimated 14%. He then claps the base of the pod. "There, done. I'm going to ride the explosion to the surface. Or up. As far up as it'll go." Shieldross places a hand on the pod's self-replenishing power core, focusing some of the suit's shielding in that area. "Any objections?"

The hand upon the power core instantly tightens and rips the device free of its holstery. The shielding in designation 14707's palm initiates a transmorphic process that, once concluded, should launch a condensed plasma slug at sub-ballistic speeds. You calculate that it would incinerate the power core and pierce through the pod, effecting a chain detonation of all volatile systems.

"On my mark."

At countdown displays on Shieldross's HUD. The transmorphic process reverts, preventing the projection of the plasma slug. Designation 14707's hand grip does not loosen and his body movements freeze. As the countdown descends the muscles around 14707's eyes constrict. "What?"

FIRE!!!

This time the transmorphic process terminates, thrusting a small spike of plasma through the power core. The explosion is immediate, propelling Shieldross upward. The stern composition of the shielding deflects the force outward. A quick directive from Shieldross prioritizes deflection in the down direction, improving acceleration by a fractional degree.

Shieldross also flashes power to the suit's mini-thrusters. You had no information regarding the existence of mini-thrusters before, but as power is rerouted to their function you quickly develop subroutines to monitor their status. Their design suggestions their intended use are short bursts for producing velocity in vacuum.

Light floods the surrounding waters. In the time it takes for the long range visual sensor to adjust, short range scanners detect the surface of the water body. Shieldross's body mass begins to slow from the blast but will break the surface in 13 meters. The short range motion sensor detects a flurry of activity in the surrounding area. The thermal sensor detects heat signatures coinciding with the motion sensor. The heat signatures indicate ten humans above five engine-seeming signatures. Traces of oil are evident in the water.

"Detecting ten humans and a vehicle just above the surface..."The female voice pauses a moment and considers this new information. Is it possible that they were shot down? If so debris should have been detected in the water. Are these guy a rescue team or an enemy?"... It is unknown if they will be happy to see us."

Attempts to use audio sensors in order to pick up any form of language and specific engine sounds."Hopefully we are able to communicate with them, I believe our survivability will be greatly increased if this is possible."

Shieldross's suit breaks the surface entirely, going airborne momentarily before splashing back down. There are five motorized water vehicles, two humans apiece. A driver and a gunner. Both sport a safety breastplate and shinguards while the gunner carries a weapon that matches the specifications of a sub-machine gun. External scans of the gun suggest a short burst of sustained fire could pierce the boatmen's protective gear. The weapons would have little effect on Shieldross without prolonged firing windows.

"Hey there!" Shieldross calls out.

The humans respond by barking towards each other. You lack dictionary functions on their language, but predictive subroutines evaluate that the humans are telling one another to leave. The predictive subroutines utilized body language as input.

The boats begin to turn about, 29.00 degrees left of Shieldross's visual focus. Shieldross sets into motion as well, treading water to the nearest craft. Based on the vehicle's handling and the acceleration displayed by the forward moving boats, Shieldross should be able to overtake the craft in 2.68 seconds. "Do I chase?" asks designation 14707.

"I agree, we should not seek unwanted attention. However we will need more samples of there language if we desire any form of communication from them. Please continue to follow them until further notice. In the meantime I shall be attempting to pick up radio waves with our audio sensors. Your power levels may fluctuate as I attempt this."Increase power to audio sensors. Creating subroutines to divert any unnecessary noise out of Shieldross's helmet such as background noises and radio stations (if any)

Shieldross continues on his current course and grabs ahold of the accelerating vehicle. He lifts himself over, nearly capsizing the vessel. "Follow discreetly? I can't, really." Shieldross uses the mini-thrusts to balance the boat. The gunner opens fire, sprinkling the shield with a few rounds before receiving a wrist-slam to his forehead. The driver produces a small blade but does not manage to achieve anything before having his face shoved into the vehicle's dash.

The long range datacell link blinks to its active state as Shieldross slides it into the boat's control panel. He adjusts his body to a position of equilibrium on the craft and takes up the sub machine gun. "You guys drive this thing."

"I was thinking more along the lines of clinging to the bottom or something but this works too." The engines to the craft fluctuate a bit and and the dashboard lights flicker for an instant as a quick diagnostic is run on the craft."Searching for any GPS data on this thing now."

"This seems to be a simple enough craft, please handle the controls yourself mamn. I will assist with eleminating the targets." Using the hud I circle the heads of the 4 other drivers."Eleminating there escape is first priority. These weapons should not cause us a problem so dealing with the gunners is our secondary objective."

"We are have no knowledge of our situation. It would be ill advised to use lethal force against these men until we have more information."The craft lurches to the left and begins to speed away from the men.

As soon as the drivers' heads are outlined in red Shieldross opens fire on the nearest craft. The sub-machine gun sprays over the shoulders of a driver opening two wounds below his neck. The gunner of the craft lurches in the stream of bullets, shielding the driver's head with his breastplate. A few bullets impact the gunner's armor, but the stream of fire has already ended. Shieldross rounded his sights to the next driver as soon as the gunner jumped.

Muscles relax as Shieldross hangs back on his seat. He retrieves an ammo cartridge from the gunner he knocked out earlier and switches out the cartridge in the sub-machine gun's chamber. Shieldross moves the gunner to a stable position where he will not fall of the craft; designation 14707 had been holding him against the boat with a leg. The former driver, similarly, was tucked beneath Shieldross's chest.

The boat continues leftward, to open ocean, as its last directive. Shieldross lets out a heavy breath of air. "Why are there two of you?"

----GPS not installed. A navigational system is detected and interconnected with a server located approximately 2.19 kilometers in the direction of the retreat. Server reports closest supra-landmass is a chain of islands 13.83 kilometers ahead. No auxiliary information regarding the islands is reported.